50 Favourite Musicals: 5: INTO THE WOODS (1986) (Stephen Sondheim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life.

First performed: 1986, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, CA

First seen by me: 1988, Martin Beck Theatre, NY

Productions seen: six

Score: Stephen Sondheim

Book: James Lapine

Plot: Once Upon a Time, Cinderella wanted to go to the ball, Little Red Riding Hood wanted to visit Granny's cottage, a baker and his wife were desperate for a child, and Jack had to sell his aged pet cow for a new one and exchanges her for magic beans. They must all go into the woods to get their wishes, including the neighbourhood Witch to visit her daughter Rapunzel.  Everyone gets their wish and live Happily Ever After... or do they?

Five memorable numbers: NO ONE IS ALONE, CHILDREN WILL LISTEN, AGONY, GIANTS IN THE SKY, A MOMENT IN THE WOODS

After the success of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine wanted to work together again and decided on exploring the moral ambiguities of living Happy Ever After when the actions you have done to get there have consequences.  Cinderella marries her Prince but what if he was raised to be charming but not faithful?  Jack steals from and later kills The Giant but what of the grieving Giant's Wife who wants revenge on the little killer who abused their hospitality? And what do you do when parents or children are taken from you - do you blame others or yourself?  Although Sondheim denies there was any deliberate intention for the work to reflect the AIDS crisis that was contemporary to it's writing, you cannot help but read it as a reflection on those times of sudden death, recrimination and the forming of community.  It's continued success down the years shows the world has not changed much... 

The show had a short initial run at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, giving Sondheim and Lapine a chance to see where the show might be enlarged and clarified before it opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1987 with the wonderful cast of Bernadette Peters as The Witch, Chip Zien as The Baker, Joanna Gleason as The Baker's Wife, Kim Crosby as Cinderella, Robert Westenberg as Cinderella's Prince as well as The Wolf and Danielle Ferland as Red Riding Hood.  The show ran for nearly two years and won three Tony Awards - Gleason for Best Actress, Best Score and Best Book - but losing out in it's production awards to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.  More importantly, just after a year after it opened, INTO THE WOODS was the first musical I ever saw on Broadway.

Lapine's glorious original production was the best introduction to Broadway and luckily it was filmed with the reunited original cast just before it closed and is available on DVD.  The first London production only lasted five months at the Phoenix Theatre, largely due to Robert Jones' ugly, over-intellectualised production but it did feature two memorable performances from Julia McKenzie as The Witch and Imelda Staunton as a pugnacious, determined Baker's Wife; Imelda went on to win the Best Actress Olivier Award for Best Actress.  A far more cohesive and enjoyable production was John Crowley's 1998 revival at the Donmar - it's smaller stage giving the action more of a focus - with yet another Olivier Award-winning Baker's Wife, this time the wonderful Sophie Thompson, in a cast which also included Jenna Russell as Cinderella, Damien Lewis as her Prince and a break-out performance by 17 year-old Sheridan Smith as Red Riding Hood.

The last three productions I have seen illustrated how versatile directors have found the material - the Landor staged INTO THE WOODS in their 60 seat pub theatre in 2009, the Open Air theatre in Regents Park staged a spectacular production in 2011 with a multi-level set disappearing off into the surrounding trees which certainly gave the piece a vibrant setting, even if not all the directorial choices held up, but did give Hannah Waddingham as The Witch, Jenna Russell as The Baker's Wife, Beverley Rudd as Red Riding Hood and Michael Xavier as The Prince / The Wolf excellent chances to shine.  In 2016, the American Fiasco Theater Company brought their INTO THE WOODS to the Menier which had a cast of 10 and a near-bare stage. The show survived of course but the relentless "look what we can do with a rope" got old very quickly.  A lovely performance from Harry Hepple as The Baker helped save the day.

I still remember the excitement of buying the orginal cast recording at Tower Records and racing home to play it, reading the libretto and studying the colour foldouts of production shots - and that excitement has not diminished over 36 years, it was a worthy winner of that year's Grammy for Best Cast Recording.  It's a score which moves me greatly, especially in the second act where Sondheim unleashes a succession of songs that cut through to a universal sadness: the Witch's "Lament" then her goodbye to the small-minded humans with "Last Midnight"; The Baker's burnt-out cry for a moment of rest "No More" which leads into the anthemic "No One Is Alone" where the characters realise that a family is not just blood relatives - and in between these there is one of Sondheim's most under-rated solos, The Baker's Wife's "A Moment In The Woods", it's this song that makes the role a real award magnet and makes INTO THE WOODS one of my all-time favourite musicals.

So... what video to pick?  In truth I did not mind the Disney film which despite being truncated actually stayed true to the spirit of the show but it has to be the original Broadway cast, and here is the press reel of clips for broadcast purposes; they are not in chronological order but give you a real flavour of the production featuring the marvellous performances of Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Danielle Ferland, Robert Westenberg, and Kim Crosby among others.

50 Favourite Musicals: 10: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (1973) (Stephen Sondheim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1973, Shubert Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1989, Piccadilly Theatre, London

Productions seen: five
  
Score: Stephen Sondheim

Book: Hugh Wheeler

Plot: In 1900 Sweden, actress Desiree and lawyer Fredrik are two former lovers who rekindle their feelings for each other when she visits his town on a theatrical tour; however they are now paired with Anne, Fredrik's teenage bride, and Desiree's jealous lover Count Carl-Magnus.  Matters come to a head during a weekend party at Desiree's haughty mother Madame Armfeldt...

Five memorable numbers: SEND IN THE CLOWNS, THE MILLER'S SON, A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY, EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH, THE GLAMOROUS LIFE

Well, here are... the Top 10 Musicals; these are the ones whose scores mean the most to me.  We start with yet another Sondheim for a very good reason... he is my favourite musical composer.

After COMPANY and FOLLIES had shaken up the Broadway musical in the early 1970s with explorations into what could be done with the form, composer Stephen Sondheim and producer/director Hal Prince were in no mood to stop. They revisited an idea they had in 1964 when they wanted to create a modern take on an operetta-style romantic musical and decided to do an adaptation of Jean Anouilh's RING AROUND THE MOON but Anouilh said no - and said no again after they told him they had writer Hugh Wheeler on board!  Sondheim suggested two films that had a similar theme: Jean Renoir's THE RULES OF THE GAME and Ingmar Bergman's SMILES ON A SUMMER NIGHT as both feature a weekend country house party with romantic intrigues and jealousies enveloping both guests and servants.  Sondheim decided the Bergman had a subtlety that lent itself more to becoming a musical - and luckily Bergman agreed to the adaptation, his only stipulation being it be given a new title.  Hal Prince once described NIGHT MUSIC as "whipped cream with knives" but Sondheim is of the opinion that Prince was more interested in the former, he the latter.  Indeed what makes it such an interesting show is that all the characters are dissatisfied with something or unhappy at an other - they may be in love but it causes as much pain as pleasure - and Hugh Wheeler's witty book runs deceptively deep, something Sondheim has only grown to appreciate in the fullness of time and over many revivals.  Sondheim later asked Ingmar Bergman if he ever saw the show and was surprised when Bergman said he had and enjoyed it, brushing aside Sondheim's apologies about changing certain characters by saying "We are both eating from the same cake".  Oh and the cherry on that cake?  Soon after it opened, Jean Anouilh's 'people' contacted Hal Prince to say that the rights for RING AROUND THE MOON were now available - too late Jean!

Sondheim went into rehearsals with most of the score written but added - and subtracted - more along the way.  The rousing Act 1 closer A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY was written during the rehearsal period when Hal Prince felt all the story lines had to come together to send the audience out on a high; this also gave Sondheim the opportunity to write the song tailoring it to the cast's specific voices, and speaking of which... Sondheim and Prince has assumed they would cast a comedy actress for the lead role of Desiree who probably wouldn't be able to sing too well, and eventually decided on Glynis Johns who, they discovered, was able to sing in a breathy, delicate style.  Sondheim had given Desiree two duets in Act I and nothing in Act II but it was decided Glynis Johns had the musicality to be given a solo in the second act.  Hal Prince re-directed the scene to focus it on her while Sondheim turned up after two days with SEND IN THE CLOWNS.  Knowing her range meant she could not sustain long notes, he devised the song to comprise of short questions "Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?" that would fit on her voice perfectly.... the rest is history!  The show ran on Broadway for 18 months, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won 6 including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress for Glynis Johns.  The London premiere was in 1975 with the dazzling cast of Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, Hermione Gingold, David Kernan, Maria Aitkin and Diane Langton; the London cast recording remains my favourite with several definitive renditions especially Diane Langton as Petra, the practical maid, tearing the roof off with THE MILLER'S SON.

I first saw NIGHT MUSIC through Hal Prince's misguided film version starring a miscast Elizabeth Taylor; Sondheim had advised against it but Prince wanted to prove he was as good a film director as he was on stage - he wasn't.  I first saw it on stage in 1989 when Ian Judge's Chichester production transferred to the Piccadilly with Dorothy Tutin's unforgettable Desiree, Susan Hampshire's excellent Countess Charlotte and Sara Weymouth again mining gold with THE MILLER'S SON.  I saw Judi Dench's magnificent Desiree at the Olivier Theatre in 1995 which won her an Olivier Award in an otherwise over-directed production by Sean Mathias.  The Menier production in 2008 was a delightful chamber version, let down by Trevor Nunn's rather languorous pacing, not helped by his inclusion of the previously cut song SILLY PEOPLE but with winning lead performances from Hannah Waddington and Alexander Hanson.  Hanson transferred with the production to Broadway where I finally saw Angela Lansbury onstage as Madame Armfeldt; Catherine Zeta-Jones was an oddly lascivious Desiree but she reined in the Swansea barmaid interpretation to deliver a heartfelt SEND IN THE CLOWNS.  In 2015 we saw a concert version at the Palace Theatre with Janie Dee as Desiree, Joanna Riding as Charlotte, Jamie Parker as Carl-Magnus, Laura Pitt-Pulford as Petra (delivering yet another fiery THE MILLER'S SON) and Anne Reid as Madame Armfeldt.  It's a show I would happily see again but sadly the one that got away was a fundraising concert version in January 2009 for the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York with Natasha Richardson as Desiree, Victor Garber as Fredrik, Christine Baranski as Charlotte and Vanessa Redgrave as Madame Armfeldt; two months later Richardson was injured in a skiing accident and later died.

So which SEND IN THE CLOWNS will it be?  Despite memorable versions by Glynis Johns, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook and Angela Lansbury, for me it's Judi Dench in the 1995 NT production, seen here over the end credits of a South Bank Show profile.  It's not a good transfer but Dench delivers a nigh-on definitive rendition where every word comes straight from Desiree's broken heart...

What with all the heightened emotion of the two Last Days of HAIR - Gavin Creel's final show on Wednesday and the cast on Saturday - my trip to see Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS has been on the blog back-burner.

As I reported a few weeks back HERE rain stopped play on our first attempt to see it and on Friday 27th I had been watching the skies all day as well as realising that I had a cold brewing too. But nothing was going to put me off having another crack at this production of one of my favorite Sondheim shows.

From the first attempt at seeing it I had liked what I saw with some reservations, seeing the full production confirmed both initial responses.

First off I must say how heartening it was to see the auditorium so busy and given the nature of the show it was no surprise to see there was quite a large kid quotient there, maybe a bit too young for the show's darker moments - but then the wee shaggers have to learn sometimes that Happily Ever After doesn't always mean the end of the story.There have been some snitty comments regarding the score in the published reviews, mostly about the show's second act turning away from the first act's megamix of fairy tale characters to more sober reflections on responsibility and community. But they are, of course, wrong, the arc and breadth of Sondheim's score is remarkable and the more you listen to it the more personal it becomes to the listener.

But did I like the production? For years I have been baffled how a show which would seem to be a natural for the Open Air has been overlooked and now it has been given a bracing production by Timothy Sheader which by and large I enjoyed but there were a few jarring choices that pulled my focus.Soutra Gilmour - whose sets this year for POLAR BEARS and THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED have overworked a particular design idea - here designed an intriguing multi-level metal platform which stretched off in all directions into the surrounding trees and reached high up for Rapunzel's tower room. It was certainly an ingenious way to use the height of that stage - but that was all it did. I was hoping maybe some of it might fall away when the Giant's Wife stomps around the land but no. The perils of a standing set. I loved the idea of how to represent the Giant's Wife however but no points for the WAR HORSE rip-off for Milky White and the Golden Hen.

Her costumes too were a bizarre hybrid of 1940s Country House, music video cast-offs and whatever was going at Cosprop. The Witch was also cursed with having an awful transformation dress, it was a bottle-green number that suggested Scarlett O'Hara's outfit made from her mother's curtains. It was a show singularly lacking in glamour - oh and while I'm on the subject. The Witch had one of the lamest transformations ever. The idea of having a runaway boy as the narrator is an interesting one, he is introduced camping in the woods with a satchel full of his toys that he uses to illustrate the story - but as good as the two boys were who we saw play the role, the toys concept surely was lost on anyone beyond row H and both boys were out of their depth at the end of the first act when the Narrator has LOTS of exposition *and* has to sing "Ever After". However I have to give Sheader credit for not wimping out and still having the Narrator killed when the fairy tale characters give him up to The Giant's Wife in exchange for being left alone. There was a nice uneasy chill in the audience at that.

Also my major irritant was the lame idea of having the characters with funny lines - The Baker's Wife, Red Riding Hood, Jack and Jack's Mother - to be played as Reet Northern. It would have worked for Red Riding Hood and Jack but Jenna Russell only seemed to be revisiting her equally Northern Dot in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. It just gets old and plays rather naff.So Constant Reader, you would assume from the above that I had a ghastly time. No of course I didn't I enjoyed it a lot - it's just I love this show so much (it was the first musical I ever saw on Broadway) that directorial flounces tend to annoy if they detract from the show's emotional journey.

By and large the cast were all delightful. In two studies of motherhood, Gaye Brown certainly made her presence felt as Cinderella's fog-horning Stepmother and the delightful Marilyn Cutts was great as Jack's Mother, her early demise was keenly felt. The most surprising performance was from Billy Boyle as the Mysterious Man - this part is usually doled out to the most irritating altacocker in the cast but Boyle gave a nicely restrained performance making his and Mark Hadfield's "No More" duet actually listenable for a change.

You know you are in trouble if your Red Riding Hood doesn't steal the show but luckily we were in the greedy hands of Beverly Rudd who took anything that wasn't nailed down. Looking initially like James Cordon in a polka-dot dress, Rudd was delightful and socked across her "I Know Things Now" solo suggesting that Red Riding Hood was more than happy for her "moment" with the Wolf.

Mark Hadfield lacked a bit of sparkle as the Baker but he is always an enjoyable presence on stage and he was ably partnered on stage by Jenna Russell - who despite speaking the part like a Gracie Fields soundalike - was a constant delight in her musical numbers and there wasn't a dry-eye in the house by the time she sang "Sometimes people leave you..." in the final moments of the show.

Ben Stott was an endearingly thick Jack but sang "Giants In The Sky" very well, it was great to look up to see him sing this amid the trees leaves - and to indeed look up at the very sky itself. For me the biggest cast disappointment was the colourless Cinderella of Helen Dallimore. I thought she had the most uninteresting voice onstage and how innocent can Cinderella be when she has a nose-ring in?

However by the sound of the applause at the end of his numbers, the hit of the evening was Michael Xavier in the one-two combination of The Wolf and Cinderella's Prince. The seeming lovechild of Rupert Everett and Russell Brand, Xavier was a vital presence onstage and was delightfully partnered by Simon Thomas on two killer versions of "Agony". I must say that the cast's vocal diction throughout was superb - Sondheim's lyrics never sounded so clear and precise.I am still unsure of Hannah Waaddingham as The Witch. She certainly made a striking hag - almost looking like a walking tree - but her 'glamorous' Louise Brooks bob and the afore mentioned Scarlett O'Hara dress seemed to also rob her of some interest. She did however sing The Witches great anthems to love and loss very well - her rendition of "Stay With Me" to the disturbed Rapunzel was one of the high-points of the show.So there you go, not for me the best production of the show but with enough dazzling components to make it surely as much a staple of the Open Air's future repertoire as A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Sondheim and James Lapine's comic-tragic tale of magic and loss, survival and the need for a family - either biological or the one you choose for yourself - may not be to every one's liking but for me, it's one of Sondheim's best and most emotionally direct scores.

I had been watching the skies all day on Tuesday as Owen and I had tickets to see the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of
I was way excited as we had seats four rows back and after a few dribbly rain showers during the day, by the time we took our seats the skies were bright and cloud free.

We saw the Witch...
We saw Cinderella and The Baker's Wife...and we saw The Prince.We scurried back after the interval and just as the afore-mentioned Prince and his brother Prince started singing their reprise of AGONY I felt a drop of rain.

No I told myself... it was just a pidgeon's teardrop.

And then it pished down.

And the two Princes were told to get off the stage and we had to stand in the bar area.

And five minutes later we were told the show was cancelled and to apply to the box office for exchange tickets for another night.

And I realised I had left my programme on my seat so i ran back to get it as I had my ticket pushed into the spine, as I do.

And it had been nicked. So Owen has e-mailed his e-mailed tickets back for the exchange.

Now all THAT'S Agony.